4 out of 5

Label: Wonderdrug Records

Producer: Ken Cmar

On their way to producing their first great album, Scissorfight again show that all of their elements existed from day 1 – tight hooks, good grasp on quiet to loud dynamics, vocal flexibility, lyrical crassness with just the right dash of smirk and sneer – but it would take a few tries to find the right balance to make it all click.  ‘Balls Deep’ has its share of classic S.Fight tracks – ‘Gibbeted Captin Kidd’ has the staccato riffage to growled chorus delivery that sold ‘Mantrapping,’ and ‘Lunatic Yankee Spectre’ is onea those all-out countrified slam rock trips that always does the trick of breaking up the stomping and growling (and both tracks just sound like Scissorfight songs) – but it still has a bit of clutter that keeps it from being a seamless listen.  Ken Cmar might’ve lessened on some of the studio tricks of ‘Guaranteed Kill’, but there’s still an attempt to add some sonic wonders here and there, linking material or lead-ins to songs, and it’s rather unnecessary and breaks the flow at certain points, especially going into the latter half of the album.  Similarly, Iron Lung is still hanging onto his metal-core growl.  It’s effective – ‘Human Head’ is a nicely brooding, creepy track – but it doesn’t have much range by necessity, and the dude is capable of some nifty yelps and hollers so it was cool to hear him stretch that muscle more and more from New Hampshire onward.  And, lastly, yes, Scissorfight is always going to be a down and dirty group, but ‘classic’ Fight has this sorta’ fratboy thing going on with it versus the deer-shootin’ beergut laidback crassness of the more recent incarnation of the band.  And the last few tracks on the CD – starting with the titular track – just sorta’ jam all that fratboy stuff together, ending it on a condensed silly note.

Those are all the negatives.

The positives?  Of course: it fucking rocks.  And it beats the short pants off of most of your rock groups, so my nit-picking aside, ‘Balls Deep’ is an absolute must in your collection if ya ain’t no nancy boy.

(I love that the genre of the band just makes me assume there’s some kinda’ good ol’ boy mentality running things here.  Oh well.)